From
Bogey Bear
Children love to run, run, run. Why, I don't know, but then I'm a
bear. This book shares the excitement of running to school.
In Haitian children love to go to school and your children will too when
they share the joy and poetic verse of this book. Learning your
ABCs while you run to school is fun.
About the Book
Six island children are running at daybreak -- over the hills, through
the fields, across the city square -- to school! Never before has the
love of learning (and learning together) been such a joyous time. Denise
Lauture's buoyant, poetic text captures the happiness and youth of
energetic children on the way to school; Reynold Ruffins perfectly
illustrates the rich beauty of Haiti with the bright-colored vibrance of
Haitian folk art. A great read-aloud book for the classroom.
From Publishers Weekly
Spare, poetic text and folksy gouache illustrations celebrate the joys
of learning as a group of Haitian children make their way to school in
the pre-dawn hours. Ages 5-8. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business
Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 1-5?The joy of learning shines through in this lyrical, freewheeling
tale of a group of Haitian children on their way to school. Leaving at
dawn, these barefoot students race through the countryside and town to
their school to learn to read and write another letter, sound, word,
line, and page in the "great and beautiful books on the Road to ABC."
The text flows along with the youngsters, evoking the sounds of the early morning and the shapes of the varied terrain over which they travel. Details of the town with its bread sellers and horse tamers provide another memorable backdrop to the children's passage. This rhythmic, richly descriptive account of a "day in the life" of these young Haitians takes readers into this activity as they follow along.
With their vibrant Caribbean colors of turquoise, greens, pinks and oranges, the full- and double-page illustrations are perfectly attuned to the text. Ruffins's folk-art style, including the details of flora and fauna and folks, is a feast for the eyes. The slanting hills and varied perspectives create a sense of movement that keep readers' eyes following the contours of the landscape. An inspirational celebration of reading and the desire to learn.?Carol Schene,
Taunton Public Schools, MA Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc
From Kirkus Reviews
A poetic text charts the experiences of six children as they run through
the Haitian countryside (``six days each week, forty weeks each year,
for seven years of their short lives'') on their way to and from school.
Lauture (Father and Son, 1993, etc.) pens a lyric evocation of
childhood--or even national--struggle lightened by innocence and
leavened by the beauty of the natural world, but it retains a strongly
adult sensibility:
"On the roads of white turf and roads of red clay they run. On roads of rocks and roads of mud they run. If they take a wrong step they do not complain." The writing often soars (the children "gaze at the heavens, rise before the sun, sail with the moon, and dream of stars to read and write") but many young readers may not sit still for it.
Ruffins's bright gouache paintings are appealing; they summon the vitality of Haitian primitive art and are similarly detailed, image-rich and jewel-toned. A book that's worthy, but wanting. (Picture book. 5-8)
Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved
About the Author
About the Author Deniz‚ Lauture lives in the Bronx, New York.
About the Illustrator
Jonathan Green lives in Naples, Florida.